🌊 The World's New Biggest City

Pablo Escobar once said…

“Life is full of surprises, some good, some not so good.” Well, on this day in 1993, life gave him one of the "not so good" ones. The Colombian drug lord, who at one point was making so much money he spent $2,500 on rubber bands in a month, was gunned down. His pet hippos, however, survived the attack from Colombia’s national guard and have since populated the Colombian countryside.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

New Most Populous City

A new UN report found that Jakarta, Indonesia, displaced Tokyo as the world's most populous city

• The report estimates Jakarta's population at around 42M, followed by Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 37M. Tokyo, Japan, fell from first to third place with 33M

• The dramatic shift – Jakarta was formerly 33rd – comes after the UN changes the way it counts population data. Until now, it has relied on data from national statistical authorities. Now, it is applying a uniform criteria based on population density and built-up areas to measure cities consistently across all nations. That led the UN to count ~30M more people in Jakarta than it otherwise would have

Dig Deeper 

• Under the previous system in 2018, Tokyo ranked first with 37M people, while Jakarta placed 33rd with 11M

• The UN report found that cities now house 45% of the world's 8.2B people, more than double the proportion from 1950, when only 20% of the 2.5B global population lived in urban areas

• The number of "megacities" – cities with at least 10M residents – quadrupled from eight in 1975 to 33 in 2025. 19 of those – and nine of the 10 most populous – are in Asia

KEY STORY

Zootopia 2 Breaks Box Office Records

Disney's Zootopia 2 earned $556M globally over its opening weekend, the biggest debut ever for an animated film

• The original Zootopia premiered in March 2016 and brought in $1.02B worldwide. Hollywood experienced a challenging summer and early fall in 2025, with October recording the lowest ticket sales on record

• Zootopia 2 opened last Wednesday and collected $156M in North America from its opening day through Sunday. The film earned an additional $400M internationally, bringing its global total to $556M

• The opening marked the fourth-largest worldwide debut in box office history, trailing behind only three Marvel films: Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Dig Deeper 

• The sequel performed especially well in China, earning $271.6M during its opening weekend. This represented the second-best opening for a non-Chinese film in the country's history, behind only Avengers: Endgame (2019)

• The film's success provided a boost to struggling movie theaters following a difficult period. Industry analysts expressed confidence that Hollywood could reach $9B in domestic ticket sales for the year, an increase from $8.5B in 2018

KEY STORY

Lawmakers Question Legality of Caribbean Strike

A bipartisan group of Congress members opened investigations into an alleged war crime committed by the US in the Caribbean

• A recent Washington Post report alleged (and the White House on Monday confirmed) that on September 2, two people survived the first missile attack on a drug boat. The US then conducted a follow up strike to eliminate them, potentially violating international laws prohibiting the killing of people looking to surrender who present no immediate threat

• The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have now announced investigations into whether the second strike and similar follow-ups have occurred in the Caribbean in violation of international law

Dig Deeper 

• Representative Mike Turner (R-OH) said that if the second strike occurred as reported, "that would be an illegal act." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for the Pentagon to release unedited video of the strikes

• The investigation follows escalating events with Venezuela. Maduro has accused the US of using the drug interdiction campaign as a pretext for regime change

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

KEY STORY

Luigi Mangione’s Hearing Begins

Luigi Mangione returned to a New York courtroom on Monday for a pre-trial hearing. He’ll soon start trial over the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO

• Prosecutors played 911 audio and surveillance footage from his arrest at a PA McDonald’s. His lawyers say that arrest included an unlawful search

• The judge will decide what evidence — including a backpack containing a 3D-printed gun, silencer, and electronics — can be shown to jurors

• A corrections officer also testified that Mangione was kept under constant watch after his arrest to avoid an “Epstein-style situation”

• The hearing will continue this week

Dig Deeper 

• On the 911 call, the McDonald’s manager said, “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of and he looks like the CEO shooter from New York. So they’re really upset and they’ve come to me”

• One corrections officer who monitored Mangione in December said the inmate talked to him about the differences between private and nationalized healthcare and how “different medical states in third-world countries compared to the West”

WE THE 66

X Isn’t Real Life

X is the world’s most influential news platform, but it’s also a mirage — a highly manipulated mirage

• In today’s WeThe66, Max Towey discusses X’s transition over the last decade: From the 2010s when it skewed left and woke — to today, where Musk has relaxed content moderation policies to the point where the site has become a right-leaning digital cesspool

• A new feature on X confirms what we previously wrote about: Foreign actors are manipulating the world’s most influential news platform to drive division and false narratives

• You can read the story at this link!

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

📉 The UK and US reached an agreement to keep 0% tariffs on British pharmaceutical exports for three years.

🤖 OpenAI acquired a stake in Thrive Holdings – a private equity firm established by one of its major investors, Thrive Capital – in what's being called the latest circular deal involving the AI company.

🇺🇦 US officials traveled to Russia on Monday to continue negotiations over ending the war in Ukraine.

⚖️ A federal appeals court unanimously ruled on Monday that Alina Habba – Trump's former personal attorney with no prosecutorial experience – has been serving unlawfully as US attorney in New Jersey, marking the first appellate decision against Trump's controversial prosecutor appointments.

🧑🏻‍⚖️ Joaquín Guzmán López, son of imprisoned drug lord "El Chapo" Guzmán, pleaded guilty on Monday in a Chicago federal court to US drug trafficking charges.

What does Roca Nation think?

🦃 Yesterday’s Question: What was the highlight of your Thanksgiving?

🏈 Today’s Question: Any hot takes on the college football playoff? Or Lane Kiffin?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

👕 Layered Victory: Idaho's David "Record Breaker" Rush completed a half-marathon wearing 137 T-shirts, reclaiming his Guinness World Record after losing it to a competitor who wore 127 shirts.

🎄 Holy Heist: A faceless baby Jesus figure was stolen from Brussels' Grand Place nativity scene over the weekend, mystifying Belgian authorities investigating the brazen Christmas theft.

🏫 The Rage Age: Oxford University Press has named "rage bait" as its 2024 Word of the Year, defining it as online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage to boost engagement and traffic.

🕺 Dancing with the Bars: Louisiana State Penitentiary held its first father-daughter dance, allowing nearly 30 inmates selected for good behavior to reunite with their daughters in tuxedos and formal gowns.

😻 Paws for Legislation: A New York City bill would legalize bodega cats, allowing store owners to keep feline employees without fear of city fines as long as basic health and safety standards are met.

ROCA WRAP
The Guitar Revolutionary

Jimi Hendrix

This guitarist once set his instrument on fire at a music festival, creating one of rock's most iconic moments.

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle in 1942, James Marshall Hendrix grew up during wartime with an absent father serving overseas and a mother struggling with poverty and alcohol. His father spent two months in the stockade after attempting to see his newborn son. When his mother died from a ruptured spleen when Hendrix was fifteen, his father refused to take him to the funeral, instead giving him whiskey and telling him that's how men handle loss.

At Horace Mann Elementary School in Seattle, Hendrix carried a broom everywhere to mimic playing guitar. A school social worker, concerned after more than a year of this behavior, wrote a letter requesting funding for an actual instrument, warning that denying him a guitar could cause psychological damage. Her efforts failed. At fifteen, while helping his father with a side job, Hendrix found a single-string ukulele in garbage they were hauling away and taught himself to play by ear, following along to Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog."

Before turning nineteen, police caught Hendrix twice in stolen cars. Given a choice between prison and military service, he enlisted in the Army in 1961. He soon proved to be a terrible soldier. His obsession with guitar practice led to taunting and physical abuse from fellow servicemen, who once hid his instrument until he begged for its return. His platoon sergeant filed a report stating Hendrix had no interest whatsoever in the Army and recommended immediate discharge.

By 1967, Hendrix had gained popularity in England but remained largely unknown in America until Paul McCartney insisted he perform at the Monterey Pop Festival in June. At the finale, he doused his guitar with lighter fluid and set it ablaze, kneeling before the burning instrument with raised hands. A seventeen-year-old photographer captured the moment with the last frame in his camera, creating one of rock's most famous images.

In August 1969, Hendrix headlined Woodstock, taking the stage around eight in the morning after being awake for more than three days. He performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" using feedback and distortion to imitate rockets and bombs, creating what became a defining moment of the sixties.

On September 18, 1970, after taking eighteen times the recommended dose of sleeping pills, Hendrix died from asphyxiation in London at age twenty-seven. His body was returned to Seattle for burial near his mother's grave.

In just four years of major stardom, the guitarist who learned on a one-string ukulele revolutionized rock music.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

As much as we try to limit the football questions of the day — per popular request from many of our “I’m not into sportsball” readers — we couldn’t help ourselves with this one. We’re excited to read your takes and expect many IP addresses from the southeastern part of this great country in our inbox today.

Have a great Tuesday.

–Max and Max